Question Two M.2 drives on motherboard

Feb 18, 2023
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Hey,
I'm looking to upgrade my storage by getting a second M.2 drive for my MSI B450M Mortax Max.
Currently I have a Samsung 970 PRO in the M.2-1 slot, which has been working great so far (though i still don't know if i'm using it to the greatest extent with my motherboard..). Now, I would like to get a similar drive for the M.2-2 slot. Due to all the confusing terminology in storage (PCIe lanes, different PCIe generations, ...) I don't actually know if that kind of drive would work in the secondary slot or if it would even block some other hardware connected to the motherboard. Anyone willing to help me?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Hey,
I'm looking to upgrade my storage by getting a second M.2 drive for my MSI B450M Mortax Max.
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450M-MORTAR-MAX/Specification

Your board has 2x M.2 ports.

1 x M.2 slots (M2_2, Key M)
Supports PCIe 2.0 x4 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage devices
---------
1x M.2 slot (M2_1, Key M)
Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 (1st, 2nd and 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™/ Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics and 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics) or PCIe 3.0 x2 (AMD® Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics)and SATA 6Gb/s 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage devices

---------------------------------

What drive is in there now, and which M.2 port is it in?
 
Feb 18, 2023
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I was looking to get one similar to my current drive, probably one of Samsung's 9xx again, but it sucks that my motherboard is limiting me here. The chipset is old, so it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.
I want to use the storage (i would probably get 2tb) mainly for heavy image processing, so the speeds of Gen 2.0 are a big no-no.
Thanks for the help, I'll look into getting a motherboard upgrade.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I was looking to get one similar to my current drive, probably one of Samsung's 9xx again, but it sucks that my motherboard is limiting me here. The chipset is old, so it's probably time for an upgrade anyway.
I want to use the storage (i would probably get 2tb) mainly for heavy image processing, so the speeds of Gen 2.0 are a big no-no.
Thanks for the help, I'll look into getting a motherboard upgrade.
Don't upgrade the motherboard, just to have better NVMe capability.

"heavy image processing" happens in the CPU/RAM/GPU, not the drive.
Even a SATA III SSD would do just fine.
 
Feb 18, 2023
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Don't upgrade the motherboard, just to have better NVMe capability.

"heavy image processing" happens in the CPU/RAM/GPU, not the drive.
Even a SATA III SSD would do just fine.
Well, what I'm referring to is that I'd save tons of photos onto it and then process those photos which includes lots of importing and writing.
I do astrophotography and I use a software that heavily depends on drive speed when it comes to swiftness of working.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Well, what I'm referring to is that I'd save tons of photos onto it and then process those photos which includes lots of importing and writing.
I do astrophotography and I use a software that heavily depends on drive speed when it comes to swiftness of working.
Have you actually compared the performance between your current 970 Pro and a SATA III SSD?

While not astrophotography, I also do a lot of photo and CAD work.
I have a 980 Pro, and a (comparitively slow) Intel 660p. The 660p is my main photo drive.

In rendering and saving those files, I can tell pretty much zero difference. Not just feel, but actual timed tests.

Before you go through all the hassle of a new motherboard, try something in the PCIe 2.0 port. See what happens.
 
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Feb 18, 2023
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Have you actually compared the performance between your current 970 Pro and a SATA III SSD?

While not astrophotography, I also do a lot of photo and CAD work.
I have a 980 Pro, and a (comparitively slow) Intel 660p. The 660p is my main photo drive.

In rendering and saving those files, I can tell pretty much zero difference. Not just feel, but actual timed tests.

Before you go through all the hassle of a new motherboard, try something in the PCIe 2.0 port. See what happens.
Okay, I'll do that.
Thanks for the help, I'll come back to this forum if any problem comes up.